Note to Printer: Most quick printers and small print shops today are not what the general public perceives as the traditional "quick printer". They have matured to small commercial printers. I wrote this Customer Information Sheet to explain in lay terms to the prospect the various types of printing that we do - quick printing, commercial printing, and a small amount of letterpress printing. It is mind boggling to many customers to see just how many processes must be completed before their job is ready to deliver. Probably most important is that you will be surprised at how many of those "rush" jobs will turn into normal delivery jobs. You can port this into your wordprocessor and edit it for your own shop. The name of the file is FIST.TXT. What Kind of Printing Fits Your Needs? There are occasions when you must have a very fast turn around on your printing. As with anything else, there may have to be a little give and take on these rush requirements. Certain types of printing can be turned around almost while you wait, others may take weeks or even months, depending on the size and complexity of the job. As your printer, we provide four different types of printing services in house, and virtually every type of graphic art requirement available through sub-contractors. Those services we provide in-house are: Quick Printing - a fast turn around service from your camera-ready copy, or that which requires the typesetting of only one or two lines of type in a face that need not be matched, printed in black or occasionally a colored ink on a variety of paper stock we maintain for this type of printing. The quality is as good as commercial printing, within its limitations. i.e. no high quality photographs, no matching ink, nothing other than simple bindery, etc. Copy Service - If you require 50 copies of a 150 page manuscript, generally the most economical and fastest method is our high speed copier. We can copy on one or two sides, put the pages in order with a cover, and staple or plastic comb bind in a couple of days. This is great for line copy but photos do not come out as well as offset printing. The cost is much less than offset printing. Personal Imprinting - small quantities (normally from 1 to 200 copies) of cards, invitations, announcements, etc., which are printed from handset type, in any color ink on a large variety of fine personal papers we stock or on your own paper. Imprinting Christmas cards is an example of this type of printing. Commercial Printing - virtually all other types of printing. A huge selection of paper, matching of inks, photos that will jump off the page at you, close registration of colors, etc. QUALITY We strive to make every job we produce the highest quality possible. If we are rushed in the production of your job, that quality simply cannot be guaranteed. Shooting photographs is time consuming (about 15 minutes per photo) If there is not time to re-shoot marginal quality halftones, there may be a less than ideal reproduction. Cutting or folding a job before it is thoroughly dry will cause marking. Printing a second side before the first side is dry will cause an ink offset of one side onto the second side, etc. What Makes the Difference in the Various Types of Jobs? The major difference in the types of jobs is what it takes to get the job ready to print. To give you an idea as to what goes into a printing job and how it flows through a shop consider the following: On a quick printing job there is little preparation and it can be on the press within minutes of the time you bring it into the shop if presstime is available. What you get is a clone of the copy you provide. If your original has light copy and broken lines, the finished copies will too. We will attempt to opaque out any minor spots that might be on your copy, attempt to straighten a crooked image on the page, etc. but for all practical purposes, your finished product will look exactly like the copy you bring in, unless you authorize the job to be re-typeset. The personal imprint job takes a little longer - generally a couple of days. We set the type from our small selection of handset type and while we do not attempt exactly match ink colors, we have a large variety of standard colors you can choose from. We print these short-run personal imprints on a 100-year-old handfed letterpress. The commercial printing job (any job that is not camera ready and to be run in black ink on one of our standare paper stocks) will take time in the typesetting department (depending on scheduling and the job's complexity), the stock may take two to three days or more to be delivered if it isn't on our shelf; it will take one or more days in the camera/platemaking department; at least one day per color/per side in the pressroom (to allow the inks to thoroughly dry); one or more days in the bindery; and it is ready to deliver. To save you money, much of this work is combined with other jobs so that we don't have to mix chemistry especially for your negatives, set up just to make your proofs, wash up the press for color ink, etc.. These time consuming setups are absorbed by several jobs, thus reducing the cost of each. A rush job goes in front of everything else and each of these processes is absorbed entirely by that rush job. While we don't have an extra charge as such for a rush job, depending upon how previously entered jobs are scheduled, that rush job might make it necessary to run other jobs on overtime. The cost of a rush job can run as much as double the estimated cost. We do not give estimates on rush jobs since they are priced strictly off the time on our job tickets, and your job will also absorb any overtime required to make promised deliveries on any jobs your job was put ahead of. Your price on one of these rush jobs will not reflect our normal highly competitive pricing. What Actually Goes into the Different Types of Jobs? Quick Printing Write job ticket & log job in Check camera ready copy for dirty spots and opaque Shoot and develop direct image plate Wash press if other than black ink Pull paper stock Put stock on press Put plate on press Make ready press Run job Let dry Pad, fold, etc. if required Package Invoice Personal Imprinting Write job ticket & log job in Check copy Check and pull or order paper stock Hand set type Proof type Washup press Ink press Make ready press Run job Let dry Package Invoice Commercial Printing Write job ticket and log job in Order stock or select from stockroom Make dummy for typesetter if dummy not provided by customer Select and spec type, and copyfit Install type in computer Set type Process type Proof type Correct typographical errors Reprocess type Shoot stats, if required Make pasteup Make proof for customer Call customer in to proof Make alterations, if any Reprocess type Re-pasteup type Shoot negatives Develop, fix and dry negatives Strip negatives on mask Cut windows in mask Opaque negatives Burn blueline Proof blueline Customer checks blueline Make necessary corrections, if any Reset & process type Reshoot negatives Develop, fix and dry negatives Restrip negatives on mask Opaque negatives Burn plate Process plate Washup press if not black ink Mix ink if required Ink press and runup ink Put plate on press and makeready Cut stock Put stock in press Run setup copies and check against blueline Run job Let dry Repeat for 2nd color/side Set up bindery equipment (fold, drill, pad, stitch, etc.) Make ready on bindery Bind Package Invoice YOU MAKE THE CHOICE If you rush us on a job, the odds are greater that something might go wrong. If so, it will turn out to be that job that there is never enough time to get it done right, but always enough time to do it over. We will do everything in our power to get your job out as soon as possible. You can be assured that no job will be put ahead of yours unless it is a rush job that the customer has authorized overtime to complete. Rush jobs are billed at a cost plus normal profit basis - generally somewhere between a 50% and 100% charge over our normal estimate. As an example, on outside services, a normal 5-day delivery on a color separation might be $75. Next day service is $150 minimum. Next day shipment on 500 envelopes that would be prepaid on normal delivery can have freight charges of as much as $32. Each of these steps take time and there are few steps that we can cut out. The elimination or rushing any of these steps increases the chance of error and a lower quality end product. You make the choice. We want to be your printer and we want to give you a superior product at the most competitive price possible. IMPORTANT: Camera-ready copy is just what it says: copy that is ready to shoot, as, with no changes of any kind, and requiring no paste up. We will set, at our minimum charge, any address or phone change in our standard Megaron typestyle. If changes are to be made, add one day to delivery. IMPORTANT: Most typesetting jobs require that we have all copy in, along with a dummy, before we can start setting type. That includes all photos, cutlines, headlines, etc. Attempting to fit in missing elements may require the re-setting or re-formatting of the entire job, and substantial additional cost. NORMAL DELIVERY SCHEDULE Quick Printing - Within 24 hours Typesetting - 1 to 5 days or more, depending on current schedule. Personal Imprinting - 2 to 3 days Commercial Printing - 5 or more working days after camera ready is approved, depending upon the complexity of job. Process Color Printing - 2-4 weeks Sub Contracted Work - Must be quoted at time job is entered Rush - Job will be placed in front of all others in shop and processes not combined with others to save production costs. Customer must pay any overtime charges necessary to make delivery on jobs his job was put ahead of. Copyright 1990, Cy Stapleton, Lufkin, Texas